Platypus
06-17-2005, 12:13 PM
A Black sail on blue seas
by Antony Judge
Stumbling up the stairs of the Boobie Bird I was greeted by another perfect Coral Sea morning. Day after day the wind had died off until the sea had taken on the appearance of oil. It was 6:00am, not a cloud in the sky. The Water temperature was 27 degrees with 40 metres visibility. The toast was on the table and the first dory was in the water. It just doesn’t get any better than that.
The Boobie Bird is an 80 ft vessel that operates out of Gladstone. The Captain, Stu and crew had worked with us to make this a great trip. Our guide was Ted from Extreme Spearfishing in Sydney. So far the trip had been great with lots of big fish coming aboard, plenty of personal bests and stacks of tasty fish to take home.
Our dory crew was made up of Extreme Ash, Mike Bonnici, Matt Alexander and myself. Our team had done well so far, accounting for the top four biggest fish coming aboard, with Ash’s dogtooth tuna coming in heaviest at 64 kg.
Not wanting to loose the early morning advantage we quickly loaded our dory and after pelting the two deck hands (Isaac and Sam) with burley we set our course to the nearest drop off. We only spent about 20 minutes there before the decision was made to look for a fishier spot.
Out in the Coral Sea finding good fish is made much easier if you know the right telltale signs. Scanning the area we soon spotted what we were looking for: Ted’s dory. We charged on over, pulling up close, but not quite close enough to hear what he was yelling at us. We guessed it was, “good morning.” The spot was better but still not as good as the day before and noticing Ted moving on, we did the same.
We headed out to sea as I had noticed a current line. There was a bit more life here so we put down a burley trail. After 30 minutes it seemed like we were going to have a quiet morning. There were no quality fish seen so far. Matt, as boaty had started picking up the divers. Ash was in the boat and they were picking up Mike, with me waiting. I retrieved my RA chicken float and was pulling in my teasers when out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a movement. Coming in 10 metres below my teasers was a large black shape.
It was a SAIL FISH! He stopped and had a good look at my flashers and started circling them. He was completely black. With out a second thought I dived. Half way down I gave my teasers a yank. Up went the sail and his jet black colouring changed to an intense purple with stripes down the body and spots on the sail. He was just glowing with colour. Admiring this awesome display I continued gliding down. At about 6 metres away I saw his attention move off the teasers as he looked up towards me. When he rolled to the side I knew this was my chance. I had played out this scenario in my mind many times. I knew that he was well inside the range of my 1.4 RA. There is no greater feeling than when you have a gun that you know is pinpoint accurate, one that you have shot hundreds of times and there is a dream fish giving a perfect shot right in front of you.
Bang! I felt the gun kick. From the moment I pulled the trigger I knew I had stoned it. I quickly checked that my flopper had engaged, yes! I pulled on my shooting line to make sure he was not just sitting there about to make a run. No, I had stoned him. Words can not describe what I felt. I started my 18m swim up, bringing the fish with me.
Looking up I could see the dory above, with Mike’s fins still in the water. They were totally unaware of what had just taken place below them.
I calmed myself (somehow) and upon reaching the surface calmly said, “You should see the size of the long tom I have shot.” With the water so clear there was no hiding it once they looked over the side.
Yehaa!! I had just shot my first bill fish. The next half hour was spent getting photos and re-telling the story. Back on the Boobie Bird the fish weighed in at exactly 40kgs.
It was only 8:00am, not a bad start to the morning. I spent most of the day as the boaty but didn’t care one bit.
I am sure looking forward to next year’s trip.
Antony Judge
by Antony Judge
Stumbling up the stairs of the Boobie Bird I was greeted by another perfect Coral Sea morning. Day after day the wind had died off until the sea had taken on the appearance of oil. It was 6:00am, not a cloud in the sky. The Water temperature was 27 degrees with 40 metres visibility. The toast was on the table and the first dory was in the water. It just doesn’t get any better than that.
The Boobie Bird is an 80 ft vessel that operates out of Gladstone. The Captain, Stu and crew had worked with us to make this a great trip. Our guide was Ted from Extreme Spearfishing in Sydney. So far the trip had been great with lots of big fish coming aboard, plenty of personal bests and stacks of tasty fish to take home.
Our dory crew was made up of Extreme Ash, Mike Bonnici, Matt Alexander and myself. Our team had done well so far, accounting for the top four biggest fish coming aboard, with Ash’s dogtooth tuna coming in heaviest at 64 kg.
Not wanting to loose the early morning advantage we quickly loaded our dory and after pelting the two deck hands (Isaac and Sam) with burley we set our course to the nearest drop off. We only spent about 20 minutes there before the decision was made to look for a fishier spot.
Out in the Coral Sea finding good fish is made much easier if you know the right telltale signs. Scanning the area we soon spotted what we were looking for: Ted’s dory. We charged on over, pulling up close, but not quite close enough to hear what he was yelling at us. We guessed it was, “good morning.” The spot was better but still not as good as the day before and noticing Ted moving on, we did the same.
We headed out to sea as I had noticed a current line. There was a bit more life here so we put down a burley trail. After 30 minutes it seemed like we were going to have a quiet morning. There were no quality fish seen so far. Matt, as boaty had started picking up the divers. Ash was in the boat and they were picking up Mike, with me waiting. I retrieved my RA chicken float and was pulling in my teasers when out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a movement. Coming in 10 metres below my teasers was a large black shape.
It was a SAIL FISH! He stopped and had a good look at my flashers and started circling them. He was completely black. With out a second thought I dived. Half way down I gave my teasers a yank. Up went the sail and his jet black colouring changed to an intense purple with stripes down the body and spots on the sail. He was just glowing with colour. Admiring this awesome display I continued gliding down. At about 6 metres away I saw his attention move off the teasers as he looked up towards me. When he rolled to the side I knew this was my chance. I had played out this scenario in my mind many times. I knew that he was well inside the range of my 1.4 RA. There is no greater feeling than when you have a gun that you know is pinpoint accurate, one that you have shot hundreds of times and there is a dream fish giving a perfect shot right in front of you.
Bang! I felt the gun kick. From the moment I pulled the trigger I knew I had stoned it. I quickly checked that my flopper had engaged, yes! I pulled on my shooting line to make sure he was not just sitting there about to make a run. No, I had stoned him. Words can not describe what I felt. I started my 18m swim up, bringing the fish with me.
Looking up I could see the dory above, with Mike’s fins still in the water. They were totally unaware of what had just taken place below them.
I calmed myself (somehow) and upon reaching the surface calmly said, “You should see the size of the long tom I have shot.” With the water so clear there was no hiding it once they looked over the side.
Yehaa!! I had just shot my first bill fish. The next half hour was spent getting photos and re-telling the story. Back on the Boobie Bird the fish weighed in at exactly 40kgs.
It was only 8:00am, not a bad start to the morning. I spent most of the day as the boaty but didn’t care one bit.
I am sure looking forward to next year’s trip.
Antony Judge